Friday, April 24, 2009

Um, yeah, so that's me standing next to Adam Lambert in the pit on American Idol. Once I'm home I'll upload the copy from TV and post it so you can see the whole thing, this is just a snapshot my brother in law took of his TV when he paused it at the right moment! My little sister Julie is kind of squished up behind me too. . .I wasn't going to let her in on it TOO much.

Here's how the whole thing went down.. . .

I was heading out for my annual girls week(end) with my sisters and mom on Wednesday, but my sister Heidi called Friday night and said "can you meet me in LA on Monday night instead, because. . . I have ticket vochers for the American Idol rehersal on Tuesday!!" After some shifting of work and help for the kids, I was on my way.

Madison's reaction was great. . ."Madison, guess what? I get to go to American Idol with my sisters!"

"What? You're GOING to American Idol? You get to go to EVERYTHING!!!"

So we met up in LA on Monday night and early Tuesday morning headed out to the CBS studios, yes, AI is on Fox, and tapes there. . .people were also lining up for Dancing with the Stars from ABC.

We got in line about 9:45 or so and waited until 1 to get in. My sister Julie said that her husbands advice for being in a line is "if you're going to get in a line, you may as well be first, then be friendly and be fully prepared." It was awfully HOT I must say, so when no one was there for a while, we sat at the bus stop and played cards. Once we were in the real line, we just tried to find some shade. Unfortunately we could only have our camera to that point, so the pictures are few. . .

waiting at the bus stop playing cards to pass the time Everyone BEHIND us in lineRyan's parking spot Our official bands to be standby

They finally counted us off and took us in and got us all set up. For the rehearsal, we were in the left side front pit (when you're facing the stage). Ryan came out and did his run through for the evening, setting up where he stood, running his lines, etc. He was very friendly with the audience and made comments, etc. So they ran the whole show. While we were waiting for them to begin, I looked at the row behind us and noticed Brenda Strong--voice from Desperate Housewives. The contestants all sang, it was so great to see all of them. One of the funniest parts was the fake judges. They have 4 people out that are kind of mocked up like them. The Simon guy actually looked pretty close. They made comments after the contestants sang (all nice and supportive of course). But here's where I let you in on a little Idol secret. The recap portion of the night of the live show is all from the dress rehearsal, so if you go back and look, you can even see the backs of the judges heads are not the same as the real judges. . .the hair is not the same and the clothes aren't either! I never even noticed before. . .but now you're in the "know." Also, in the real show Anoop misses his last note, but in the recap he hits it!

Before we went in one of the stage guys said if we were interested in being standby for the live show to find him, so of course we did. . .he said to go back to the front gate and get in line, FIRST again (at least the 2nd group in line anyway). We waited again in the heat, while we were waiting Steve Wozniak drove by on his segway and said hi to us. Then they took back about 20-30 of us. They told us we would be seat fillers, basically fill in any empty seats, most likely VIP's that didn't show or that left early. My sister Heidi and I ended up fairly close to each other. As we walked in I saw Vince Neil (from Motley Crue). Lisa ended up with a seat on the far left side of the studio, and Julie had to wait at the top. Just as we sat down they announce Randy and Kara into the studio, they shook hands and made their way to their seats. Just a second later, they were already pulling me from my seat and put me in the right side pit. Then they announced Paula, I high-fived her, then Simon came out and I shook his hand. Crazy. So the show began. One thing we all noticed is how loud it is in the studio. When you watch on TV, you can only hear the crowd when they're really loud. After Lil' sang, Julie ended up in the pit behind me. Kris sang next (I stood by his Dad in line when we were picking up our cameras after the show), then Danny then Allison. As Allison finished, I heard a stage hand by me saying "excuse me, excuse me", and I realized she had Adam with her. I said, "Oh, he can stand right here!". He quietly stood and clapped during the judges comments. I was standing there realizing that they were going to do the clip for the commercial right there, and was honestly freaking out thinking Ok, what am I going to do? Just clap? Wave? What??? So just after Ryan was talking with Allison, Adam turned around and said, "Ok!", if you slo-mo it you can totally see him turn and look at me. It all went so fast, but I decided to just smile and point like crazy at Adam like "HELLO! Adam is right here!!" I think I said "good luck" or something then he headed off. . . then turned to my sister Julie and said, "alright, I'm sure my kids are freaking out Right Now!" So, that's basically it. We saw Adam sing (amazing!), then we got moved to some seats. Just before we moved Andrew Lloyd Webber was walking right behind us. Matt and Anoop finished off the show.

It was fantastic, and even more fun to hear how everyone saw us. Most of our families knew we'd be at the rehearsal, but had no idea we'd be in the actual taping, and we left our cell phones in the car since we couldn't take them.

Matt and the kids were eating dinner and hadn't watched it yet. . .Madison's friend Olive called and said "I just saw your Mom hugging Adam!". They turned it on and were trying to figure out where I was.

My brother Todd called to tell them. He and Suzanne had no idea we were even there! They had been watching it, and Suzanne yelled "There's your SISTER!!" He was so confused, "what are you talking about?", she said, "I wouldn't miss your sister!", so they rewound and sure enough!

We called everyone else and gave them a heads up of where to look. When we watched it back later when we paused here and there we were able to see all of us in the audience. It was such and blast, and even more fun to be there with my sisters. Such an adventure. Where will we turn up next?????